THE SHOCKING truth behind Britain's most high-profile animal experimentation project is revealed today in confidential documents seen by the Daily Express. The secret papers show horrific animal suffering despite claims to the contrary. They also reveal researchers have exaggerated the success of work aimed at adapting pig organs for human transplant.

The project, carried out by Cambridge-based Imutran, involves transplanting genetically modified pigs' hearts and kidneys into monkeys. Thousands of pigs, monkeys, and baboons have been used.

Over the past five years Imutran - the world leader in xenotransplantation - claims to have been close to solving the crucial issue of organ rejection which has so far prevented trials on humans.

But the Daily Express found scientific papers declaring new breakthroughs did not give the full picture. In one published paper it is claimed no baboons died from "hyperacute" reaction when two excluded from the published study did.

A second publication describes a baboon which (who) survived for 39 days with a pig heart - the company's greatest success to date - as healthy throughout. But records show that it (he or she?) was suffering in the last days of its (his or her) life. Its (his or her) heart had grown in weight by three times, a significant fact not mentioned in the published article.

Internally, the company admits to being a long way off targets set by the American Food and Drug Administration for trials on humans. It wants "substantial" improvements from its scientists in the next 18 months.

The experiments are being carried out at the Huntingdon Life Science's animal research laboratories in Cambridgeshire.

Imutran says the animals do not suffer. But the laboratory technicians' own detailed records of the animals post-transplant lives paint a different picture. One monkey which (who) had a pig heart attached to the blood vessels in its (his or her) neck was seen holding the transplant which was "swollen red" and "seeping yellow fluid" for most of the last days of its (his or her) life.

Animals are described as quiet, huddled, shivering, unsteady and in spasm. Some had swellings, bruising or were seen with blood or pus
seeping from wounds.  Others vomited, or suffered from diarrhoea.

Imutran was given a special dispensation by the Home Office to carry out this work because of potential benefits to humankind. It has a duty to ensure the animals suffer as little as possible.

BUT documents show that over a quarter of the animals died on the operating table or within a few days because of "technical failures" in the surgical procedures. In one experiment, this accounted for 62 per cent of lives. In another, 13 out of 22 monkeys died within two days of the operation, a fact not mentioned in their published paper. Imutran maintains all the relevant data was included in the scientific paper. There have been a number of awful mistakes. One monkey had to be "sacrificed" when researchers discovered the pig kidney it (he or she) was about to be given had been mistakenly frozen. In the documents, Imutran acknowledges that it has had "severe problems" with the data. The documents have gone to animal rights group, Sheffield-based Uncaged Campaigns, which compiled a report - Diaries of Despair - to present to the Government calling for a halt to xenotransplantation research and an independent judicial enquiry. The group's director Dan Lyons said: "The documents show the true extent of the suffering of these primates. This atrocious suffering must stop."

An Imutran statement yesterday said: "We should like to emphasise that animal welfare is very important to Imutran. The conduct of our animal experimentation is closely monitored by the Home Office."

Last night Dr Gill Langley, a member of the Government's Animal Procedures Committee, expressed concern. "These documents reveal the PR image and the reality of xenotransplantation research. It seems even the scientific community isn't being given the full facts."

THE baboon began its (his) life in the scrubland and sparse trees of a Kenyan savannah. Its (his) final days were spent in a cramped, stainless steel-framed cell, four thousand miles away in Cambridgeshire.

It sic) had become baboon number X201m - one of the thousands of residents in Europe's biggest animal research laboratory, the Huntingdon Research Centre, owned by Huntingdon Life Sciences.

The barbed wire exterior of the sprawling complex is patrolled by security guards who keep a wary eye on groups of activists who gather outside to protest against vivisection.

None of this could be seen from the baboon's new home - the top secret Room 099 - where the light is regulated by the flick of a switch every 12 hours and the air changed every four minutes by extractor fan.

The monotony was broken on the morning of March 23, 1998, with a flurry of activity. Baboon X201m was carried to the operating table, where it took five hours to cut away its (his) healthy heart and replace it with the heart of a pig.

It is called xenotransplantation - a highly controversial experiment which some believe will one day be the solution to the shortage of organs for human transplants.

Baboon X201m clung to life for 39 days after the operation, which makes him (!) the world's longest survivor with a pig's heart.

His owners, Imutran, the Cambridge company which financed the experiment, hailed it as a huge success and devoted a scientific paper to him. But all was not quite as it seemed.

Until now, the full details of Imutran's experiments on live primates have been a closely guarded secret. The company carefully filters the little information that has been released.

It claims to be on the verge of a breakthrough which will make it possible for a human being to live with a pig's heart or kidney. And it insists that the animals in its experiments do not suffer.

Today the Daily Express can expose the reality. A volume of confidential documents - the largest set of data on animal experiments ever leaked - suggests that the company has not been frank with the public and the scientific community.

It also shows that many animals have endured days or weeks of suffering in vain.

continued

Back to previous page